SUPERIOR, Wis. – The 2022-23 season came to a bitter end for the Yellowjacket women's hockey team. After a tough regular season, the Yellowjackets were knocked out of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament in the opening round, making an already long off-season a few days longer.

Fast forward to Friday night, and the Yellowjackets, who returned a largely intact roster, were back on the ice to open the 2023-24 campaign. The opponent, Lawrence University, is the same team the Yellowjackets have opened against each of the last two seasons.
 
The Yellowjackets were 4-0-0 over the first two meetings, and after Friday, you can add another one to the win column.
 
With single goals in each of the second and third periods, the Yellowjackets slipped past Lawrence in the season opener, 2-1 at Wessman Arena. The Yellowjackets (1-0-0, 0-0-0 WIAC) have now won their first game of the regular season for five straight years.
 
The 'Jackets held a big territorial advantage in the opening period, outshot the Vikings 12-7 in the frame and had the better of the chances, but it was Lawrence who got on the board first.
 
Sofia Alvarez opened the scoring, redirecting a pass by Delaney Kingsland between the circles and past Yellowjacket goaltender Rose Beeman (Minneapolis, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret's School) to make it 1-0 at 15:28 of the first period.

It stayed that way until the 7:24 mark of the second, when the Yellowjackets drew even.

Emma Booth (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) did some fine work along the left wing boards to help the Yellowjackets maintain control of the puck and hold the offensive zone. Booth had it in the left circle, and moved it to the slot where Cora Coz (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) made no mistake, rifling a shot past Lawrence goaltender Sydney Seeley on the short side to tie the game. Anna Scherling (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) also assisted on the play.
 
Early in the third period the Yellowjackets took the lead for the first time.
 
On just the second shift of the frame, Brynn MacLean (Wilcox, Saskatchewan/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) got the puck in the left corner and moved toward the Lawrence goal. MacLean took a shot from the goal line that appeared to be stopped by Seeley, but she couldn't hold on and it snuck across the line to put the 'Jackets in front just 1:22 into the period. The goal was unassisted.

Later in the period the Yellowjackets were pinned in their zone and Lawrence had a golden opportunity, but Beeman made the save of the night, diving to her right to make the save. In the final two minutes, Lawrence pulled its goaltender, but the extra attacker didn't allow them any further offense and the Yellowjackets got the win.

Beeman finished the game with 18 saves to move to 1-0-0 on the year. The Yellowjackets outshot Lawrence 32-18 for the game.
 
The Yellowjackets and Vikings will play game two of their weekend series Saturday afternoon at Wessman Arena. The opening faceoff is set for 2 p.m.